Fishing Blog primarily about fly fishing in the UK and USA. The objective is to promote the gentle art of casting the fly and catching beautiful fish. The author although a qualified fly fishing instructor with 40 years experience does not teach commercially but likes teaching and promoting fly fishing as a hobby.

Thursday, 29 August 2013

Well I started this blog really as a diary to keep track of my fishing adventures, but recently domestic challenges seem to have eclipsed the fishing. However, that has not stopped folk from all around the world from viewing the posts so I feel I ought to confess why I have gone a bit quiet and why I have not been fishing. The first distraction was my former company asking me to come out of retirement and help them design a training presentation for Facilities Managers. I enjoyed doing this as it brought me into contact with former colleagues but it did take up twice as much time as I thought it would. Then at the same time my youngest daughter, her husband and their two children, who had been living with us for nearly two years, moved out so as to be near dad's new job. My wife and I spent two days at their new address making and hanging curtains etc. So back at home we finally had the chance of making good all the wear and tear that two little fellers and five adults can produce. To make it more challenging, my youngest son announced that he had his new girl friend arriving from Finland in a few days time and could we get the house sorted? To give him credit he did help but his, and my wife's expectations were high and involved us redecorating the hall with new stair carpet, giving a face lift to the front garden and jet washing the drive (and the rest)! Then we had to order a new double bed as we had now got our guest bedroom back. The bed arrived on the same day that the Finnish girlfriend arrived and I was frantically assembling it only to find that two rather large components were missing so Finnish girlfriend ended up with the new (rather expensive) mattress on the floor! The bed issue is likely to be the subject of a further post!

On the positive front let me tell you about two bits of technology I really enjoy. First of all let me explain that when it comes to dealing with the latest technological gizmos I am a bit of a troglodyte (cave dweller)! However, I am a fan of satellite navigation systems and would not be without my Tom Tom especially when abroad.

I really like my Tom Tom and was pleased that my son who works for Voicebox in the USA project managed the development of voice recognition for the Tom Tom systems in the USA and Europe. The other bit of technology I enjoy is the BBC's iPlayer which enables you to catch up, at anytime, with BBC TV programmes you have missed over the last seven days.

It is absolutely brilliant and enabled me to watch the amazing fifty year anniversary tribute to the Dr Who TV series as part of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. To see the look of wonder on the faces of the children as the alien figures moved about the audience was a treat. If you have missed it on iPlayer you can view parts of it on You Tube.

Yes, the Daleks have finally taken over London! So that's all for now but hopefully next week I will be on the chalk streams with my brother teasing a few brownies!

Sunday, 11 August 2013

This weekend my wife and I visited somewhere famous or infamous, namely Blackpool a seaside holiday (vacation) resort famous for its tower and the "golden mile" of seaside amusement attractions. We were in the area for another reason, to be revealed later, but we thought we would treat ourselves to a stay in a nice hotel and check out why over the years Blackpool has been a favourite holiday destination for so many.

The Tower was being repainted so we skipped that

The Hilton was quite nice.

Classic British seaside pier with the tide out. There are three piers at Blackpool.

Busy seafront with roller coasters

Pirate joints and amusement arcades line the sea front!

Donkey rides on the beach for the kids.

Then we found the brilliant huge paved area (located on the sea front just in front of the Tower) celebrating all the comedians who had ever performed at Blackpool by displaying beautifully their jokes.

You could spend hours reading and laughing and you could not help laughing out loud. So here is a sample of the thousands there. Reading them might help my many readers from around the world have a better understanding of British humour, or it might not!

I like the top one best of the next picture.

So whilst we had a good time in Blackpool we didn't fall in love with it, but we did love the very clever joke pavement and certainly other towns and city's could learn from that.We stayed in Blackpool so we were able to attend a pageant put on by our church entitled "Truth Will Prevail" at Corby, near Preston. It featured a huge volunteer cast and was absolutely outstanding. My pictures and description could not do it justice but I think the following You Tube clip does.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsBw0-rGNywEnjoy!

Friday, 9 August 2013

I have taken the liberty of reproducing Justin Anwyl's August report here because it has some very useful info. I have beach fished with Justin but I think now he mainly drift fishes (loch style) with his clients. During the season they manage to catch thousands of sea bass!When it comes to fishing he is a "top gun!"

"August is here as is the sun. This season has been a complete tail of 2 halves as in May when we last wrote a note, I was in the Solent in a ski jacket trying to keep warm. Water temps were 12 degrees and Bass were still spawning! which is at least 2 months later than normal. Since then, the water temperatures have rocketed to 20 degrees and the sun has come out big time. Over the last couple of months we have experienced some of the best catches in ten seasons and some of the worst - my feeling is with the lack of blanket cloud and very high visibility a lot of fish have moved into deeper ground as it's the first time ever I've seen not only lobster pots from beneath the boat but lobsters in them - I can't imagine what the reflection is like when looking at the hull! - whatever you are tempted to do, i would suggest getting down deep and put on a larger than average pattern aswell as venture out as early as you can before the light is up - many times this season we have been on the boat for 4.30am and had 50-60 Bass by 8.00am, after that, you'll start to dredge the depths as the fish mover lower against the light..

Re the fishery, it is obvious to me that there is pressure on the brood stock as we are hooking up to mid gauge Bass and there seems to be a lack of quality in the usual areas in the early part of the season, as well as a lack of the smaller Bass showing in the harbours - I would be interested in your thoughts to see what your experiences have been like to date this year.One thing which I have noticed, especially when traveling east is the amount of food in the water, tonnes of bait, either sandeel or mullet fry and this has only just started to attract large shoals of mackerel and Bass - this is the latest I have know this to happen, so maybe if we have a very clement summer/autumn our lines may be graced with a pull into November - fingers crossed. .

This is Good!

This is better! (J McGill)

I have since the last newsletter put up a Facebook page, which you can access via the link on the homepage - a good way to ask questions and keep track of daily catches and experiences.... if you have a question, i'd be happy to help.

For now, the season is in full swing and hopefully we can fish into latter part of the season if the summer extends as we expect it to. Pray for heat, cloud and low wind - not too much to ask!

Friday, 2 August 2013

Having been away from Bewl for over 8 weeks (mainly in the USA) and knowing the weather in the UK has been warm I read last weeks fishing report with interest. I reprint it here as I know fishers from across the globe are interested.

Picture courtesy of "fishactive.com"

"Cooler weather over the last week has improved the fishing at Bewl. The fish are not as deep and have spread out across the water. Anglers have been catching at a depth of about 10ft rather than the 25 ft during the last few weeks.

This week's rod average is an excellent 3.58. Brown trout are beginning to show, especially at the end of Hook Straight. A brown of 6lb 8oz was caught and released.

Best areas for boats are the Main Bowl, the cages and the end of Hook Straight. Bank fishing is still challenging and the deeper water off of Chingley is the best place to try.

An early reminder that no boats are available on Wednesday 18 September when the Annual Grand Max competition will be taking place.Water temperature 20 degC, water level 85.5%"So I might be tempted to give it a go!